In Tracy's footsteps


By Jake Urbanski
PrintEmail Article Tools Page 1 of 1 Austinite Tracy Schach is a walker. She walked through Arkansas on her 46th birthday in March. She walked through hail and snow in Tennessee. She has walked through pains and aches in her legs every day for the past three and a half months. On Friday, she will walk from her Boston hotel room to Fenway Park, where Beantown's mayor and more than 30,000 fans will greet her.

The stroll into one of baseball's most cherished institutions will be the culmination of a 2,000-mile trek from Austin to Boston - all on foot. Schach, sister of Red Sox relief pitcher Mike Timlin, hit the road to raise awareness of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, ALS took the life of Schach's mother, Sharon Timlin, five years ago.

Timlin raised Tracy, Mike and two other children by herself.

"It was difficult for her to take care of us," Schach said of her mother. "But we always had what we needed. She was a strong woman, and she always fixed a problem that came around."

Timlin remained strong when doctors diagnosed her with ALS in May 2001. Even as she lost control of her muscles, leaving her paralyzed, she told her daughter Tracy that she would beat the disease.

"I draw a lot of my strength from my mom," Schach said in a phone interview from Hopkinton, Mass. "Walking all those miles is nothing compared to what she endured the last year of her life."

In that last year of Timlin's life, she lost the ability to walk, talk and breathe.

There are still a lot of unknowns surrounding ALS. Researchers have been unable to find a definitive cause or cure. What is known about the disease is that it stops the brain from sending impulses to the body's muscles. While the brain and other organs are able to function, the rest of the body essentially shuts down.

"The one thing I know is that the average ALS patient doesn't live long enough for science to study them," Schach said.

Since ALS sufferers lose the ability to talk, they can't relay important information to doctors. That's why the decision to walk is a fitting one for Schach. Traveling through 11 states on foot and talking to people around the country about ALS is the perfect way to pay tribute to her mother and other victims of the disease.

The decision is also an ironic one because "walk" is a four-letter word to Schach's brother Mike, a relief pitcher.

"Mike doesn't like [walks] in his stats," Schach said.

But Schach has built up some impressive stats since she left her home in Dripping Springs on March 1 with her 24-year-old son Robert trailing her in an RV. She has raised more than $20,000 for the Angel Fund, which benefits ALS research. She has covered more than 2,000 miles in 107 days, just shy of 20 miles per day.

You think Barry Bonds walks a lot? Baseball's all-time leader in bases on balls has nothing on Schach. Her cross-country excursion is the equivalent of taking 117,333 trips from home plate to first base. That puts Bonds' record of 2,490 walks to shame.

But it was a brush with another baseball great that made for the most inspiring part of Schach's expedition. On May 22 she walked into Monument Park, located under the left field bleachers of Yankee Stadium, before a game between the Red Sox and Yankees. The mini-museum features plaques of Yankee greats, including ALS' namesake, Lou Gehrig.

Schach then took a few minutes to reflect out in left field. Her trip came full circle as she stared at the plaque of Gehrig, the man who brought recognition to the disease that killed her mother and who was recognized for playing the same sport as her brother.

"I stood out there a long time and thought about the trip," Schach said. "I kept thinking, 'Where is this supposed to lead?'"

Schach's journey has led her to Boston and has raised thousands of dollars for ALS research - not bad for one Austinite who relied on nothing but her mouth and her feet.

If her expedition fails to inspire an interest in ALS, it at least shows us what one person can accomplish. Tracy drew her power from her mother, and now we can all draw power from Tracy.

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